Help Wanted

I need some ideas from all of you out there. What do students have to do to pass Algebra at your school? My school requires students to pass both semesters. By pass I mean the average of the two quarters and exam that make up each semester must be 60% or greater. The problem we run into is what to do with students who don't pass the first semester.

When I first started working at this school all students who didn't pass the first semester retook it immediately instead of moving on with the rest of the students who passed. The idea being that if they didn't pass first semester they will would not be able to pass second semester. This was a scheduling nightmare for our counselors. They couldn't complete the final versions of the second semester schedule until the math teachers all turned in the names of the students that didn't pass.

Last year we allowed students who failed first semester to continue on to second semester with the rest of their peers. This made things easier for the counselors and didn't put students behind. However, students would have to take summer school to make up the first semester course.

I'm not sure which way is best or if passing both semesters is the best way of assigning credit for Algebra.

Both teachers and administrators at my school are struggling with how to solve this issue. What do you do at your school? Thanks for your advice!

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

As with the custom of many families, my husband and I will periodically clean out our children’s toy boxes, getting rid of any broken or unwanted items. (Here’s a word to the wise. Clear out the toy box when the children are asleep or gone at a friend’s house. This will alleviate any drama and hard feelings. The funny thing is that your child won’t even notice those toys are missing.) Anyways, the holidays are usually a good time to do this when new toys and treasures come in. Much to my husband’s chagrin, I must sort through these toys personally myself before he’s allowed to box them up to pass along to Goodwill or throw away. Why, you ask?

Starting with my first year of teaching, I have always used my children’s toys to either introduce a lesson or use them as a pivotal component of the math lesson. Talk about capturing your students’ attention! Not only elementary-aged children but also teenagers in middle school. If I ever teach high school or even college, I envision myself continuing to use this practice.

Being a garage sale junkie, my step-mom had found a $1 toddler remote control robot for my son. I innocently decided to use this robot to demonstrate to my students how a Texas Instrument CBR can collect and graph functions comparing distance to time. Oh, my! I had never seen my 7th graders so jovial about a math lesson before! What a discovery I had stumbled upon! Ever since then I have looked at children’s toys in a whole new light.

When I taught 3rd grade, I used my son’s 200 Hot Wheels collection to teach the multiplication facts. Every year, his old Transformer toys help me kick start my transformation lesson. The possibilities are endless!

I must admit that my husband is a pretty good sport for appeasing me and going along with my eccentricities. What treasures do you have buried in your closets, basement, or attic?

Snow Days!

So this past week was really crazy at my school. All of South Eastern Michigan was covered in snow Monday morning resulting in a snow day for most schools in the area. Tuesday morning I woke up to icy roads (it was too cold for the salt to melt the snow and what did melt turned to ice!) and another snow day. Wednesday is my lab day. This gave me a day to reorganize and revamp my lesson plans. Thursday we had our winter performing arts assembly. This was a chance to see our band, choir, and dance groups perform. They did a great job and put on a great performance (especially since they missed two days of practice due to those snow days!). Friday we had building problems and school was canceled again. However, this time the staff still reported. My fellow Algebra teachers and I worked on updating our pacing guide. Our courses we are off track from where we wanted to be. Some topics took longer to get students to master and other topics went faster than we anticipated, but we are still behind schedule. We used this day to plan the rest of 1st semester (which ends the first week of February for us). Now instead of worrying about how far behind we are we can focus on the new pacing plan which we will continue to update throughout the year.

Happy Holidays to everyone! Enjoy your winter break and some much deserved time to relax!

Finals are Over

Fall final exams are finally over! Hallelujah!!

At my school, science and pre-algebra finals are always given on the last day of finals week. On top of that, my 7th period, the last period of the day, is usually a pre-algebra class. As soon as the bell rang at 3:40 PM this past Thursday, a great sense of relief came over me. Teachers and students alike are exhausted and are ready for the long winter break, allowing us to relax and rejuvenate for the upcoming new semester.

My district still has school the following day. Friday is an early release day where students are dismissed after lunch time. At times during this four-hour period, it could feel like we teachers are frantically trying to control the mayhem. Before you feel sorry for me (or not), let me reassure you that it’s not all a bad thing.

Luckily my campus has a plan with scheduled events and activities. We spend this time having fine arts assemblies. I like this tradition because it gives me an opportunity outside my classroom to see my students shine in areas that they are good at – REALLY good at. I am always amazed and impressed at the array of talents these middle schoolers possess. Who would have ever guessed that the lifeless heap in the corner of my classroom had so much energy and passion? Why am I so surprised every year? Beats me! One of my goals this next semester is to find a way to tap into and showcase these teenagers’ incredible talents.

Well, my husband and I still have a little bit of more shopping to do for the kids. Then there’s a friend’s birthday party this afternoon. Although I have so much more to share with you, I will end it here.

May you and your family find peace and joy during this holiday season. Merry Christmas!!

Student Resource Center

Have you heard about the latest and greatest in the Carnegie Resource Center? Students can now have access to their own resource center account! Teachers must first log in to their own resource center account and download the access code for their school. Next students go to the resource center and create their own account. There is a PDF file that you can download to give your students to walk them through the registration process. It's really simple and only takes a few minutes.

I had my students register this week while they were in the lab and allowed them to explore the resource center for a few minutes before logging into the tutor. Students now have access to digital copies of the text, homework helper, assignments, and skill practice books. The student resource center also has videos for students to watch if they are having trouble launching the tutor and gives them access to Carnegie Support contact numbers and emails if they are having trouble.

At first I wasn't sure if I was going to have my students register for the student resource center. Many of them do not have Internet access at home and I was not sure if they would actually use it. However, many of them were very excited about having access to digital copies of the assignments and text. Students will now be able to print their own copies of assignments they are missing and can print out assignments from home when they are absent. I love this! One of my students said he was going to use it to look at what we are learning next. As the year goes on I'm excited to see how my students use this new resource.

The Expertise of Those in Authority

As some of you may already know, my school is fortunate enough to be located across the street of a major university specializing in agriculture and engineering. TAMU is a wonderful resource with many experts in a plethora of fields. We public school teachers are lucky enough every semester to get these professors, researchers, graduate students, and in-service teachers into our classrooms.

What do you though when one of these experts disagrees with the fundamentals that you teach, or presents a different mathematical concept to your students? Are these experts automatically correct because they are “higher on the food chain” than us public school teachers?

This doesn’t happen very often, but this present school year has continually brought up the debate about simplifying algebraic expressions containing exponents, particularly those with negative integers. My whole life I have believed the following:

(–3)^2 = 9 but –3^2 = –9

This has been questioned by different authorities in the science and mathematical realm. They are exerting that –3^2 = 9. I am totally baffled!

As my students work on Cognitive Tutor, the software doesn’t allow 9 as an answer to –3^2. At first they are frustrated because of the misconception. It’s a good learning lesson for my students. I ask them that if they were to follow the order of operations, would they apply the exponent first, or calculate the negative multiplication?

I believe that young people should have healthy respect for those in authority. At the same time, I am glad that I live in a time and place where we can also respectfully challenge and question experts. Every once in awhile, I am wrong and have to go to my students and confess. Hard to believe, I know! :-) On the plus side, this allows for rich discourse to occur in my classroom.

So, the next time someone tells you that half a tablespoon is equivalent to one teaspoon, my advice is to do your research and decide for yourself!

Building Confidence

I had an awesome experience with one of my students this week that I just have to share. This particular student had been absent from my class a lot during the first quarter. Despite his absences he was still able to get a C because he came for tutoring and did the best he could to catch up.

This quarter the same student has improved his attendance. While at tutoring he told me that he never liked math and has always struggled with it. This week, however, something changed in this student. He came in twice this week during lunch for homework help and even came one afternoon for after school tutoring. He really wants to do well but has convinced himself that he is not good at math. By Thursday of this week he had done such great work that he now has an A in my class. I printed a copy of his grade for him and he told me that he was going to show it to his mom and hang it on his refridgerator. He was so excited about it that he told anyone who stopped by my room that afternoon.

Honestly, I think he simply needed to boost his confidence in math. I attribute most of his improvement to Carnegie. The Cognitive Tutor has allowed him to work at his own pace in catching up on the material he missed during 1st quarter. He does not have a computer at home, but really wants one so he can do Carnegie outside of school. His mom told me he asked for a computer for Christmas so he can work on the cognitive tutor! How great is that! A student who believed he "couldn't do math" now wants to do extra math at home!

When I was teaching without Carnegie materials (using a traditional textbook) the way I was teaching was only working for some of my students. Students like the one I mentioned above were still convinced they couldn't do math. The Cognitive Tutor helps me to differentiate instruction for each student. Also, the real-life scenarios in the text make sense to students. I'm so proud of this student. Now that he has built his confidence I know he will be doing even better. This is a great example of those "Ah-ha" moments that teachers live for. I'm really excited to see what he can do now that he has seen he can do math!

#1 Technical Support

When I made it a requirement this year for my algebra students to put in some Cognitive Tutor time outside of class, I wasn't sure what obstacles would surface. Beyond the grumbling of a few students that is!

Although I was a computer science major for two short semesters a couple of decades ago (prehistoric time in computer years), my knowledge of operating systems is extremely limited. So when one of my students for weeks kept telling me that he couldn't get access to the software online using many different computers at his father's workplace, I wasn't sure where to start troubleshooting. "Adam" was able to log in at school but why not else where? The cynic in me wondered if this was a ploy to get out of doing the work. That sounds awful for a teacher to express! Mind you, I was getting a lot of excuses from many students at the beginning of the year why they weren't able to clock in some CT time.

Adam's mom had him come to my tutorials to work on CT while his father and I emailed back and forth, trying to get this issue solved. During this time I learned that Adam was using computers with a Linux operating system. I contacted my district's technology department. I forwarded their suggestions to dad, keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. No such luck! Arghhh!!!

What do I do now? I then had an epiphany to contact Carnegie Learning themselves! Duh! Why had I not thought of this before? CL knew exactly what needed to be done to resolve this issue. I am happy to report that within two days, CL helped dad install CT and Adam has been "happily" working on CT ever since!

What a great sense of relief to have taken care of this! I am forever grateful to CL's technical department. They are accessible, accommodating, prompt, and professional. What more can you ask for?

Carnegie Learning's Technical Support
Service Hours: Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM (EST)

E-Mail: help@carnegielearning.com

Phone (Toll Free): 877-401-2527

Too Many Choices: Good and Bad

Our 8th graders here at AMCMS will start their high school registration process in January or February. On this past Monday they went on a tour of the Career and Technology (CATE) classes that are offered at the high school.

At one point during the tour, I asked one of my students what he thought. Thinking that most students would like the wide selection of different possibilities, I was taken aback by his reply.

“Too many choices. Kinda overwhelming. I wish they would just give us five electives to choose from.”

I expect this particular student to go on to a four-year university and probably graduate school.

So for the rest of the hour and half of the tour, I pondered about what he said. Too many choices. There are nearly 100 different elective CATE classes spread out amongst nine categories. Mind you, these are only some of the elective courses. There are also sports, band, orchestra, choir, art, and drama to choose from. Don’t forget the core subjects with regular, honors, pre-AP, and AP options.

What a phenomenal opportunity! Students can dabble in so many fields for FREE before they go off to college. Marketing and Finance. Law. STEM. Architecture. Information Technology. Human Services. Health Science. Business Management. Audio-Visual Communication. Agriculture.

I wonder if these students realize how fortunate they are. Some courses will give dual credits, giving students up to 15 hours of college credit when they graduate. Others leave with certifications and go straight into the workforce.

As I sat through each presentation, I saw the fundamental math that is needed in order to be successful in all these courses. Math is interwoven into everything. You cannot avoid it. Real-life application. Do they know math is involved in building a trailer from scratch for the livestock show?

That’s what so great about Carnegie’s curriculum. Their lessons and activities are problem-based. Not merely isolated skills drill. Great things are coming with Carnegie’s new Middle School Math curriculum, geared towards middle school students’ experience, humor and personality.

Now when my students ask me, “When am I ever going to use this?” I can honestly say, “Next year at the high school in your elective classes!”

Too many choices. I say it’s good to have choices.

Tomorrow as you look across the dining room table at the wide range of choices, remember – you don’t have to eat everything! :-)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Take a Break

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Wow its hard to believe that it's already almost the end of November. I don't know about at your school, but at mine the time from September until November is the hardest. It is the time you are getting to know your students (both personally and academically). It is also the longest period of time without any sort of break. Now that thanksgiving is here the rest of the year usually flies by.

How will you spend your extra time off? I'm going to be spending Thanksgiving Day with my family of course. It seems like before the break I always say that I'm going to finish a whole laundry list of things over the extra 2 days I have free. This year I'm taking a different approach. For once I'm going to try to relax. Of course I will still do my lesson plans and be ready for Monday, but I'm also going to spend sometime doing things for me. As teachers we often put our students before ourselves. While this is admirable its certainly a way to get burnt out! I'm thankful that I have a job that I love and a family that loves and supports me. To celebrate I'm going to try to take a break and for once relax. I suggest you do the same. You deserve it!

Let Go and They Will Fly

Are you one of those control-freak teachers who obsess over minute details, which in the end are really irrelevant to the contribution of the success of students? That’s me – guilty as charged!

When I was first setting up Cognitive Tutor for my classes last year, I was told about an option where students would be able to use a prearranged shortcut on a computer’s desktop to access Cognitive Tutor. This would eliminate the need to go directly online, which requires a school ID password. Sign me up, I said.

If you are asking yourself, “So what?”, let me explain. If students don’t know how to access Cognitive Tutor online, then they won’t do Cognitive Tutor outside of class. Lord forbid that they would do math outside of class! In hindsight, what was I thinking?

Well, actually, this is what was going through my head at the time.

I want to make sure that the scores and data on Cognitive Tutor accurately reflect each student’s ability. The only way to guarantee this is to limit student access to Cognitive Tutor during class time when I can keep my eyes on the students work. Don’t want parents, siblings, or friends to be working out the problems for them! Plus, I’ve got to make sure that they don’t try to sneak in using calculators. I’ll make sure that the students get 40% of class time to work on CT. Perfect. Got it all planned out. Let’s get started.

This is what actually happened:
Our laptops didn’t come in until late October or early November last autumn. My school of 650 students has only one open computer lab. Melissa and I were “hogging” lab time, both us trying to get our classes on the computer 1-2 times per week. The 40% soon dwindled down to 20%, then 10%, and before we knew what was happening, our students didn’t get to work on CT but maybe one day every two to three weeks!

There are going to be system beaters out there, no matter what policy I put into place. It wasn’t worth punishing most of my students for the few who won’t do the work and get someone else to do it for them. Luckily I had 7th graders last year taking algebra who are 8th graders this year. They are enthusiastic about CT and sing its praises to my current students. I couldn’t ask for a better cheering section. I didn’t even bribe them to do this! Honestly!

As for allowing students to use calculators, it is an internal struggle I haven’t fully worked through yet. Our state standardized assessment does not allow 8th graders to use calculators, therefore, our math department’s policy has always been to not allow students to use calculators on assignments and tests. How realistic is that? I am OK with students this year using calculators with CT, esp. since some of the numbers would be daunting to calculate long hand.

My algebra students this year are on CT at least 40% of the time every week, a majority of it done either at home and/or during tutorial times. As it is reinforcing the lessons we are doing in class, this has to be benefiting the students. I only have these kiddos for nine months. I need to make most of the little time we have and not worry about the power struggle.

There are twin girls in my algebra classes. Just this past week, one told me about how they like to each get on a computer at home, crank up the music, and see who can get the furthest on CT in one to two hours. “Mrs. Park, it was SO much fun! We couldn’t stop laughing all night!” Yes, this is an exception to most of the cases, but it’s nice to hear these stories from my students.

Test Generator... more than just tests!

Last week I was out of my classroom to attend another Algebra For All workshop. With 90 minute periods it is hard to find something that students can do that will keep them busy for 90 minutes. Normally I do not have a problem filling the time with group work, discussions, and other activities. But when a sub is there I'm always worried about keeping them busy. I was trying to literally cut and paste (with scissors and tape) parts from several different skills practice assignments to make a review sheet when a stroke of genius hit me! Why not use the test generator software to create the worksheet? Did you know you have access to the assessments, homework assignments, homework helper, and skills practice assignments are available on the test generator? This means no more cutting and pasting! I love the skills practice assignments but sometimes they are too long to assign all at once. Now I can choose bits and pieces through the test generator to make my own unique assignment. Then when I was finished choosing the items I wanted I exported the "test" as a rich text file. This allowed me to open it as a text document to edit the heading and add other items. It worked out great. I don't know why I never thought of this before!

Just Walk Away

Wow this school year is flying by! My school officially finished the first quarter today.

Anyway.... The past few weeks I've really been trying to force students to talk to each other instead of asking me for help. At this point in the year my students are pretty much used to working in groups. However, I still find that they want me to justify their answers and for me to answer their questions instead of asking each other for help. I've made a new rule in my classroom that I probably should have had a long time ago. If I help one student in a group with a particular problem that group can no longer ask me for help with the same problem. I'm trying to get them to explain and talk mathematics to each other.

While this doesn't sound difficult, I think it has been harder for me to keep up with than my students. It's so easy to rush over and "help" a student with their question. The hand goes up and I go running... this has made them far too dependent on me for the answers. This week I had to literally force myself to just walk away. Instead of staying with a group for a long time I would drop a hint or comment and walk away to let them think. This seems to be helping them work together. However, it does make the lesson take longer and some students are frustrated when I won't answer their question. I'm hoping that the more I use my new rule students will become used to it and the frustration will subside for both them and myself. For now I just keep telling myself to walk away and let them think.

More than just a Word Wall.

I do not pass out the Carnegie books to my students to take home or even put in their lockers. If I did the books would not make it to class everyday and I would have problems getting students to participate in the lessons. So instead I have them tear out a chapter at a time and I keep the packets until we are ready to use them. This eleviates a lot of pass writing for students to get books and eliminates the "I forgot it at home" excuse.

One problem this has created is that students do not have easy access to the glossary from the text. I had them tear it out during the first week of school and put it in their math folder (which I supplied). Some of them did keep it, but many did not. To solve this problem I created a word wall in my classroom.



Despite having an elementary education background, I never truly understood what good a word wall was to a student who did not know the definition. So my word wall has the word, a definition, and when appropriate an example.





When a student does not know the meaning of a word they can look at the wall (even if it requires moving to see it), ask someone near them, or use the glossary that they were supposed to save. My students really like it and it frees me to help students with math instead of vocabulary. Each time I start a new chapter I post the words. This also gives students a preview of what is to come. If I forget to post the words they are always sure to remind me!

Visiting Baltimore

I am in Baltimore this week attending the National Middle School Conference. Being from Texas, I am enjoying the cooler weather. I had the best crab cakes last night for dinner! My hotel room directly faces Camden Yards and we're planning on doing some sight-seeing tomorrow before we leave on Saturday. I sure do miss my family back home!

All my sessions today have been good. A lot of what I heard today was research-based, common sense classroom practices, many of which Carnegie already encourages teachers to implement in their own classroom. I am fascinated with the presentations on brain research from neuroscience. I learned today that telling students that they're smart backfires and doesn't help students develop resiliency for the difficult times when they face academic road blocks. As a teacher and parent, I should instead praise kids for their strategy selection, hard work, and perseverance. That was my biggest AHA! moment for the day.

Another session was on how a campus's master schedule could improve student learning. My school is anticipating a growth of 200 additional students in the next two years. Many changes are inevitable at my school in order to accommodate this growth. Doing away with teaming is an option. A compromise might be going to an 8-period day and have block math and block science while still keeping teams on my campus. I am in favor of this option. Do you know what I can do with my students if I had them for 90 minutes every day? Students would participate in-depth activities that have them go beyond the surface level of math concepts. They might even be able to be on Cognitive Tutor the suggested 40% of class time. I'm trying not to count my chicks before they hatch. I have dreamed about having a 90-minute class day my whole career! Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Connections

As a part of the Algebra 4 All State-wide project, myself and the other Algebra teachers at my school were asked to do a particular lesson with our classes and have another teacher observe the "math talk" aspects of our class. Being that we use Carnegie in our classrooms our students are used to working in groups and to helping one another. The fact that they helped each other and worked well in their groups was no surprise. However, they still managed to amaze me today!

I should start by explaining the project. My students were given a scenario about three college students who have created a budget. They all get paid on the first of the month and have to pay their rent on the last day of the month. My students were given a table showing three dates and the amount of money each student had left. They were asked to create a graph and then determine who could pay their rent. I didn't think my students would have difficulty with this part. We recently completed 1.10 Comparing US Shirts and Hot Shirts and they were familiar with graphing multiple scenarios on the same graph.

The hardest part of the problem was for students to write "a rule" to describe each student's spending. My students have not formally been introduced to slope or slope intercept form so I wasn't sure that they would be able to do it. When my first group of students were ready to try it I told them to think about the problems they had seen on the cognitive tutor. They remembered the problems with scenarios about companies that started with a set amount of money and were spending a particular amount each week. From that discussion, they decided that they needed to start their equation with the amount of money each student had and eventually they realized they needed to find out how much money each student was spending in one day. Without me telling them how to do it, several of my students were able to find the slope (although they didn't call it that)! I was so excited.

This made me realize that my students really are learning more than I realized by working on the Cognitive Tutor. I have to continue to make those connections more obvious by talking about them in class. Today's project was not from the Carnegie book or the Cognitive Tutor. However, students were able to take what they had learned (without any formal instruction on it) and apply it to a new situation. I was so elated that the teacher that was observing and I were giving each other high fives throughout the class. What an awesome way to end the week!

Co-Teaching (with a twist)

My school has made drastic changes to our schedule to try to help students achieve in both Math and English. One of the things we did last year was create a block schedule. Students at my school only take 4 classes a semester. All math and English classes still meet for an entire year for 90 minute periods everyday! All other courses meet everyday but only last for a quarter or a semester. This has really allowed me to spend time helping students truly understand the mathematics that I am teaching. A lot of teachers were nervous about teaching for 90 minute periods, but the structure of the Carnegie lessons has made it a breeze for me!

Another change we made was something we call math enrichment. Each math teacher has one period a day where they co-teach with another regular education math teacher. The two teachers can choose to use any of the co-teaching methods that they are comfortable with. The math enrichment teacher has a list of targeted students that he or she focuses on, but really ends up helping all students. Sometimes we split students into flexible groups and work in separate classrooms and other times she just walks around helping students that have questions. It is so nice to have another person in the room that can help students when they get stuck!

Unfortunately we do not have enough teachers for everyone to have a co-teacher each hour and even the hour I do have a co-teacher she does not come everyday. We have made a flexible schedule and teachers go to a specific place each day unless specifically asked to help out in another area. It's nice to know that if I need someone to help out with a particular project or activity all we have to do is adjust the math enrichment schedule.

My First Encounter with Cognitive Tutor

A topic close to my heart that I have yet to write about on this blog is Cognitive Tutor. I have especially felt compelled to write about Cognitive Tutor in the past two weeks. At the same time the thought of tackling such a task has been daunting and overwhelming. What subtopic(s) should I cover? What angle or perspective should I take? What do followers want to read about? How do I convey my excitement for this program without sounding like a desperate, cheesy salesman?

About three years ago I found myself dissatisfied with the current curriculum I was using in my pre-algebra classes. It’s not a bad curriculum. It is an on-going, ever-changing, multi-year collaboration of all the 8th grade math teachers in my district, thoughtful and well-planned out. Many people put in a lot of hours, sweat and tears putting this curriculum together, myself included. It simply did not meet the needs of the lowest 5% of my students. I was bothered by the fact that I did not send these students off to high school adequately prepared for Algebra I. I felt personally responsible for setting these students up for failure. (Today I blend that old curriculum with Carnegie’s, picking and choosing parts and pieces that have been successful with my students.)

To make a long story not too long, Sami was brought in to introduce Carnegie Learning and Cognitive Tutor to our high school math department. Middle school math teachers were invited, mainly because we taught Algebra I in 8th grade, but there was no initial intention of using Carnegie Learning at the middle school level. At the time, I was under the impression that my district viewed Carnegie Learning more as an intervention program than a mainstream curriculum.

Cognitive Tutor is an online software program that uses artificial intelligence-like model that customizes in real time a student’s plan based on his/her performance. In a nutshell, no two students will experience identical sequence of problems. The more competencies a student can demonstrate on a particular math concept, the fewer number of problems s/he has to solve before advancing to the next unit. I have been waiting my whole life for a program like Cognitive Tutor!

At the end of that school year, I approached Becky about the idea of me using Cognitive Tutor in my own classroom. To my pleasant surprise she thought it was a fabulous idea. Despite all the lows and highs, it has been one of the best decisions in my professional career.

There is so much more I can say, but I should probably save them for another day. Thanks for checking in.

Grading

One of the things I've struggled with the past few year of using Carnegie is how to grade the lab. I know that this is a very sensitive subject with a lot of teachers. Each seems to have their own way and will argue to the death to defend why it is the best.

This summer when I was working with a group of teachers at initial implementation training they wanted me to tell them the "right" way of grading the lab. Some of them had been using Carnegie before and they were convinced that since I was a trainer I must know the correct answer. I explained to them that each teacher has to find what works for them and showed them the various examples from the implementation handbook.

I've always struggled with how to grade when students are supposed to be working at their own pace. In the past I looked at how many skills students mastered in a section and how their progress compared to the other students in my class. Then I decided to start adding time on the tutor to their grade. This seemed to work better for me but did not seem to motivate my students to stay on task in the lab. My students did not seem to progress quickly enough and even my best students ended the year in section 20 - 25 (only about 1/2 through the software).

This year I decided to use a modified version of the grading rubric that Kasey Bratcher has posted in the resource center (and is also available in the initial implementation guide). The rubric takes into account student behavior, time, problems completed and progression through the software. I love that students are being held responsible for their behavior and it seems to be motivating my students to work harder in the lab. I also like that students who are not progressing as quickly can still score well as long as their behavior and time on task are appropriate. While I've still be playing with the number of problems students are required to complete and the number of sections that need to be completed this has greatly improved my ability to give a grade that reflects what the student is doing in the lab. I also like that the rubric can be shown to parents to explain how their grade is calculated and I hope that eventually I can train my students to grade themselves.

While this grading method might not work for everyone it has been working for me. Thanks Kasey for sharing your expertise!

Kool-Aid and Skittles

Sure, kids of all ages would live on Kool-Aid and Skittles if we let them, but I am not here to argue the merits of either side. I’ll leave that to the experts – the dietitians, the General Surgeon, and the FDA. However, I did find that Kool-Aid and Skittles are an excellent way to kick-start my proportional reasoning unit. My goal was to create an activity that would allow my algebra students to experience ratios. What better way to capture their attention than with food?

Many times, students are simply taught a textbook definition of ratios, and then are given examples that really only exist in the world of mathematical word problems. I’m as guilty as the next person for keeping this math concept so distant and unfamiliar. I tried something different this year. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before now!

Tapping on their prior knowledge, I had students list all that they knew or remembered about ratios. We then as a class compared ratios and fractions, mainly to dust away cobwebs and to rectify any misunderstandings. After the students gave their informal definitions of ‘ratios’ we looked at a textbook’s formal definition.

Here’s when the fun began. I had prepared two batches of Kool-Aid: one with the normal amount of sugar, and one with noticeably less.

“I’m going to place cups of Kool-Aid and a bowl of Skittles on your table,” I announced to the class, setting one cup of each Kool-Aid types in front of the student and a bowl of Skittles on each table. The response I received was one of happiness and joy.

“Here are your instructions. Take a drink from each of your two cups. Talk to your group about what you notice. As a table, write down five observations. You must use the word ratio in each of your observations.”

As I walked around and eavesdropped on conversations, I was delighted to witness all the math discourse that was going on. There were some tough negotiations about what exactly constituted as a legitimate observation, however for the most part, the chatting was light-hearted. At one point, Mrs. Scott, the science teacher across the hallway, came over to borrow something and was “upset” that she hadn’t been invited to the party!

“OK, for the second part, look at your bowl of Skittles. Your table will write down five other observations and again use the word ratio in each of your sentences.”

As the students got to work, some wanted to dump all the Skittles out onto their tables to count them so that they give precise ratios, which I didn’t allow them to do. I clarified my instructions by saying, “Make general observations without using numbers or trying to be exact.”

“Are we allowed to eat the candy once we’re done?” they all wanted to know.

“Sorry! The minimally-nutritious-food police would be after me,” I joked, wink-wink.

“Ahhhh”, my students caught on, playing along.

After everyone was done, we came back together as a class to share some of the observations. Students grappled to pick just the right words to describe their experiences. The observation we all got the most laughs out of was “Jerry’s” use of the words tangy-ness and more tangy to describe the Kool-Aid that had half the amount of sugar.

I was pleased to see that one table grouped colors together while keeping all the candies in the bowl. This made their job of making observations clearer and easier.

Keep in mind that this was only the intro to the day’s lesson. And it took less than seven minutes!

The way to a teenager’s brain is through his/her stomach. An old Chinese proverb – if it’s not, it should be.

Gallery Walk

This is my 3rd year using the Carnegie Curriculum. At my initial implementation training I completed a poster project for one of the problems and participated in a gallery walk to view others posters once they were completed.

In my haste to move through the curriculum I never took the time to actually have my students do the gallery walk. They created posters which I always displayed in class, but I'm not sure how much the other students ever really looked at them. There really was a lack of closure to the entire project.

As I mentioned before I'm part of a state wide project called Algebra for All. The project reminded me that students should be evaluating each others ideas. Inspired by attending the workshop I had my students create posters for 1.8 and 1.9 from the Algebra 1 text. It took a few days, but they really turned out great (I plan to post photos soon but forgot my camera at home today :( ). Today each group placed their posters on their tables. I had the groups move around the room getting 1.5 minutes to look at each poster. Not only did students have to look at the posters but they also had to write 1 thing they liked about the poster and 1 way that the poster was different than their own on a sticky note. Each group left a different colored note on each poster and once they finished the groups had a chance to look at the comments their peers left for them.

This lead to a great discussion of the two problem scenarios. We talked about how the problems from 1.8 and 1.9 were different and how they were the same. Students commented about differences in the equations, tables, and graphs. This discussion led us right into the 1.10 lesson where the two scenarios are compared. I now realized that although it did take some time, the gallery walk was a great way to spark conversation and a great way for students to take pride in their own work.

The posters are now displayed in my classroom for all to see. I plan on trying out different variations of this activity through out the year hopefully it wil continue to lead to great class discussions.

Picture Algebra

One of my absolutely favorite lessons in Carnegie’s Bridge to Algebra is Picture Algebra. This has not always been the case. It is the opening lesson to the solving equations unit. I have to admit that last year Melissa and I were totally baffled to why Carnegie would start a unit with a lesson like Picture Algebra, so “foreign and complicated.” The sequence of lessons did not seem logical. Why weren’t we starting the students with learning the skill of solving one-step equations, leading up to two-step equations, and finally ending with word problems? There were many nights of teeth gnashing and hair pulling from teachers, students, and parents!

I remember thinking and telling Melissa, “Carnegie must have a good reason. We must have faith and trust them. I am sure they know what they’re doing, I hope.”

Now it all makes sense! Thank goodness.

Apparently if you give students a hypothetical situation (aka word problems) to begin a unit, students can use prior knowledge and experiences to help themselves work through the problem. The new math skills and concepts make more sense if worked concurrently with a real-life application. Duh!

In Picture Algebra, students draw diagrams to represent the situation. They then use these diagrams to solve the problem and answer the question(s) as well as come up with an equation. In other words, application leads to algorithm, instead of the reverse practice that most of us experienced in a math classroom.

Give Picture Algebra a chance. Like anything new, different, or requires some thinking, Picture Algebra will receive resistance from many students. Repeated exposure will help the students feel more comfortable. I had half a dozen or so students show up this afternoon for tutorials to get help on Picture Algebra. It warmed my heart that these students cared enough to take the initiative to seek the extra help. In addition, they seemed to enjoy each other’s company as they worked through the problems together. “Frank,” who came in lost and clueless, caught on the quickest this afternoon and was given the charge of guiding the other students. He took on the responsibility with great pride. I couldn’t have asked for a better tutorials session.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I had to share this story! It's a humorous anecdote that happened in my classroom yesterday.

I was starting a unit on solving equations and was reviewing inverse operations.

Teacher, "What is the inverse, or opposite, operation of add?"

Students in unison, "Subtract."

Teacher, "Subtract?"

Students in unison, "Add."

Teacher, "Multiply?"

Students in unison, "Divide."

Teacher, "Divide?"

Students in unison, "Multiply."

Teacher, "How about to square a number?"

Dead silence. I saw a lot of clueless stares across the room. "Danny" then looked towards me, as though he had something to contribute.

I prompted, "Danny?'

In all seriousness, he hesitantly offered, "Circles?"

Needless to say, we all, including Danny, had a good laugh!

Seeing Stars

How do you motivate your students to keep progressing through the Carnegie Cognitive Tutor? My class is structured so that we go into the lab for one ninety minute periods and one 45 minute period a week. Ninety minutes can be a long time especially if students are not motivated to work.

One thing I do is keep a poster that tracks students’ progress in the lab. The poster lists each student in my class by student number (to keep confidentiality) along the side and lists the unit numbers across the top. Each time a student finishes a unit (and sees stars on their screen) they can go up to the poster and put a star sticker by their number. This helps students to visually see where they are in relation to their classmates and helps motivate them to keep going. It also encourages students to work on the tutor at home to catch up to their peers. At the beginning of each lab I ask students who have completed a unit at home to come up and get their stars. This little piece of recognition is exciting for them.

Now I know what you're thinking.... this would never work with my students. But I think it will. I teach 9th grade and my students love the stars. When I run out or forget to bring them to the lab they get really upset. I won't lie and say that this works for all students. Some of them could honestly care less about the stars and I end up putting their stickers up for them. But this simple poster (which can be purchased at any teacher supply store) and some dollar store stickers has helped me to motivate a lot of my students.

The Gift of Time

My eye is 99% better and I am wearing contacts once again! A big thank you to everyone who expressed concern and sent well wishes. Time was the key to allowing my eye to heal properly.

Speaking of time, in our day and culture, have you noticed that time is a valuable commodity that is always in demand? There never seems to be enough of it on any given day for me to accomplish all my goals or to clear my to-do list. Whether I want to admit it or not, my students have extremely busy lives also. After sports practice, dinner and maybe a community event to attend, sometimes my students don’t get home until 8 or 9 o’clock in the evening. They are exhausted, as would be expected. How can I expect my pre-algebra students to spend another hour working on math homework?

I can rant and rave about how our country doesn’t value education, or how other countries are light years ahead of us in the fields of science and math, but it won’t change the reality of American students’ lives. For those students who do arrive home before 5:00 pm, many of them do not have adult supervision. Or worse, they are the adult supervision for their younger siblings.

The best present I can give my students is the gift of time. Time to process math concepts. Time with me during tutorials working together in smaller groups. Time to start assignments in class to help cement new information.

To encourage students to maximum the little precious time given in class, I took Kasey’s advice and removed my classroom clock. Believe me; I was hesitant that this little act would make any noticeable difference. It did! It still does! For the most part, for a majority of the days, students will busily work up to the bell that signals teachers to dismiss class.

The one of many things I appreciate about Carnegie’s curriculum is the lengths of their assignments. Extremely reasonable. The right number of problems for students to practice a new skill and concept. So a family’s evening is not held hostage by their child’s math homework.

OK – I have to confess. I didn’t totally get rid of my clock. I replaced my big, clinical looking black-and- white clock with a smaller, wooden clock and placed it below my window behind my desk area.

I am not a watch wearer and therefore, still needed a way to know the time of day. It was amusing to overhear students tell each other that Mrs. Park did really have a clock. It was hidden! Students acted like they were giving away the secrets of Fort Knox! If my student only that the time they are given is worth so much more than all the gold Fort Knox could ever hold.

Student Discourse

Today I attended a professional development workshop for a State Wide project called Algebra For All. During the workshop we did a lot of discussion about what classroom discourse should look like in order to be effective. The Algebra For All focus for this year is for teachers to implement a "Math Talk Community". We discussed four components of Math Talk that came from an article called "Math Talk Community" by K. Huffered-Ackles et. al. in the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education dated 2004 Volume 35. The four components were Questioning, Explaining Mathematical Thinking, Source of Mathematical Ideas, and Responsibility for Learning. Immediately I started to think about the session on discourse that I attended at the Carnegie National Math Institute this summer.

I soon realized that the ideas we were talking about need to be a natural part of a Carnegie Classroom. Students should be explaining their mathematical thinking, be a source of mathematical ideas, both the students and I should be asking questions, and we're both responsible for their learning. While I thought I was doing a decent job at this (there is always room for improvement) I realized today that I was leaving out an important piece.

Part of sharing the responsibility for learning should be students evaluating themselves and others. Now I don't mean that students should be grading each others tests, but that they should be evaluating ideas for reasonableness without my help. I've never thought of this before. However, if I'm always the one saying if the answer is correct than I'm still the knowledge keeper instead of a true facilitator.

This week my students will be completing 1.8 and 1.9 from the Algebra 1 text. Since the lessons are very similar I usually have half of the groups do 1.8 and the other half do 1.9. Each group makes a poster to summarize their project that includes the graph, table, equation, and a few other examples from their problem. Students usually present their posters and I grade them on both the presentation and the poster.

After today's professional development I've decided that students will do a gallery walk where they will write comments on sticky notes and place them on the posters of other groups. Students will have to decide what they like about the other posters and include any questions they have for the group. Then when each group presents their poster I want them to answer the questions that the other students had for them as part of their presentation. This will give students a chance to reflect on their own learning and give them a chance to question others ideas.

Lab work

Wow this week flew by! I cannot believe the weekend is already here (although I'm glad it is). Now that I've gotten to know my students and introduced them to all my rules and procedures, this week was time to introduce the Cognitive Tutor.

The lab schedule at our school gives each teacher 1.5 periods a week in the lab (a total of 2.25 hours a week). It's not the ideal 40%, but it is all we can do with the lab space we have. So Monday I'm in class for 45 minutes and then in the lab for the 2nd 45. Wednesdays we stay in the lab for a whole 90 minutes.

Monday I spent the first 1/2 of class introducing students to the lab. I used screen captures of 2 carefully selected problems to make a hand out for students. I hooked my laptop to my projector and then showed students how to log into the tutor. Next, I used the curriculum browser to find the problems on the handout. We went through the example problem together while I pointed out the features of the software. Then students took turns being the "teacher" and typing the answers on my computer while other students volunteered to give answers.

This really helped my students prepare for going into the lab. Everyone had an idea of what they would be doing and many students soared through the first section of unit one. This left me free to help the students who really needed it.

By the way, did you know that you can now change the font size within the tutor? Just go to view while logged into the tutor and click change font size. This made the projected problems we did in class much easier for students to read. Also, I was surprised how many of my students changed the font on their computer while we were in the lab. I'm loving this new feature!!!

The Apple

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and last night I was able to meet all the “trees” of my classes. Last night was AMCMS Open House. Meeting parents is always a nerve-racking experience for me; I’ve become comfortable standing in front of a room full of 14-year-olds, but when it comes to speaking to 44 year-olds, I’m a nervous wreck. When I’m nervous, I become tongue-tied and unintelligible. I also tend to speak too rapidly, as well as not smiling.

Despite my nerves, Open House has given me the opportunity to introduce Carnegie Learning and Cognitive Tutor to the parents. Ever since I have implemented these methods, they have been receptive to and supportive of the innovative curriculum that I apply to my classroom. As a parent myself, I believe that they appreciate my honesty in providing the best math experiences possible for their child.

I had to chuckle to myself as the parents walked out my classroom door. I thought, “Wow! That’s Suzy or Bob 25 – 35 years from now!” The resemblance in my students to their parents is uncanny – not only in the physical sense, but especially in their mannerisms and senses of humor; the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Following Directions

I made it through my first week back to school! So far things are going great. I've almost learned all of my new students names and we (my students and I) have learned a lot about each other. Now it's time to jump into the math!

When I first started using Carnegie one thing I noticed was that students do not read the directions (or the whole problem) given to them. Sometimes they are being lazy and do not write their answer in a complete sentence or explain how they got the answer. But I find that often when I show a student that they didn't finish the problem they say, "Oh, I didn't see that".

To try to convince students that reading is important (without me lecturing about it) I gave my students a quiz on following directions. When they walked into class on Friday and saw QUIZ on the agenda some of them freaked out. "You didn't tell us we were having a quiz" was the reaction I got every hour. I told them that they were taking the easiest quiz ever and that I would explain more after our warm up activity. Before passing out the quiz I stressed that this was testing their ability to follow directions. I passed out the 19 question quiz face down and set a timer for 5 minutes. Once I said go they started racing through the questions that had them do things such as write their name on the paper, punch a whole in the top with a pencil, write the name of the first president on the back side, etc. No one was able to finish in the five minutes and they all begged for more time. I gave in and reset the timer for another two minutes.

By the time the timer went off a second time, a few students had reached problem 19 and had figured out my trick. You see even though I stressed that the quiz was testing how well they could follow the directions no one bothered to actually read the directions. The directions read "This is a timed test. You will have 5 minutes to complete all parts. You may write directly on this sheet. Read all parts carefully before doing anything". Once they reached problem 19 the question read "Now that you have read everything without actually doing any of the work, do number 1 only and turn your paper over". Of course all they had to do for number 1 was write their name on their paper, so students were not happy when they realized they did a lot of silly work for no reason.

Some students did not get to the last problem even with the extra time. So I asked a student to read the directions and then another student to read problem 19. Afterwards we discussed why reading the directions is important and why they thought I might give them this kind of quiz.

Now my students do not know this, but I continue with this theme through out the year by putting extra credit opportunities in the directions of some of my tests and quizzes. For example on the first test the last part of the directions will tell them to put a star by their name to get 1 point extra credit. One point won't make a huge difference in their grade, but it rewards those who read the directions. I do not do it on every test or quiz and the extra credit is always something different.

I'm sure I'm still going to have to fight the battle of having students writing sentences and explaining their answers. But at least I made my point in a fun way.

The Twilight Zone

Do you feel that sometimes you’re living in another dimension that’s not of this world? I have been for the past couple of weeks. No, I haven’t been captured by aliens, and they’re not controlling my mind. (I was born this weird!) Let’s rewind the film and start from the beginning.

It was a typical, blistering-hot Texas summer day. August 17, 2010, to be exact. I wasn’t at the pool, relaxing with a nice cold beverage and a steamy, hot romance novel. Instead there I sat, in an uncomfortable, hard chair in the middle of a cold lecture room, pretending to listen to the now forgotten speaker. I noticed some teachers texting on their iPhones. Several were doodling or day-dreaming. I swear a coach was taking a siesta while sitting upright with eyes wide open! In our defense, the presentation was running into its second hour, without a break in sight. We were like shaken up bottles of Coke, bubbling underneath, ready to explode at any moment. I made a promise to myself right then and there that I would try my best not to subject my students to such torture.

In my mind, I have always been able to logically reason out why group work was the more effective pedagogy for learning and retaining information. Sadly my heart didn’t believe in it. I didn’t have faith. I had been scarred by bad experiences: Below par grade based on the work, or lack thereof, from slacking group members, wasted time that didn’t contribute to the students’ intellectual growth or well-being. In short, a classroom management nightmare.

However, this year I bit the bullet and dived right in to group work. To my very pleasant surprise, it went without a hitch. Student stayed on task, encouraging and supporting one another. Learning from each other. I was most proud of my 7th period pre-algebra class. I used a collaborative method referred to as ‘the jigsaw’ where each table studied a specific algebraic property. The groups would rotate from station to station, leaving one member from each group behind to stay at their initial table, thus becoming the “expert” while the other group members traveled to the other tables to learn about the rest of the properties. At the end, these travelers returned to home base and were charged with teaching the expert the properties he/she missed out on.

One of my students, let’s call him “Danny”, blew my socks away! He’s your typical passive student who won’t cause trouble, but won’t participate or turn in any assignments either. On this particular day, Danny was the expert on the Multiplicative Property of Zero. He knew it backwards and forwards, could recite it in his dreams, and was able to perfectly articulate its defining attributes. I saw a sparkle in his eyes that wasn’t there before. Danny has since starting sitting up with pride and has even occasionally turned in an assignment or two. (Old habits are hard to break.)

That same day Becky emailed me and asked how my classes were going. Bursting with enthusiasm, I told Becky all about the day’s little treasures. As soon as I pressed the SEND button to my email reply, I immediately feared that the day’s events were all a fluke, something too good to be true. I didn’t tell another soul about my miraculous experience, not even my husband. A few days later, my Pre-Algebra classes participated in yet another collaborative group effort. Again, it played out as I had envisioned it. My confidence was slowly building.

My Algebra students were starting to get jealous that they didn’t have as many hands-on, out-of-your seat activities. Noticing the supplies neatly laid out, “Jerry” excitedly bounced into class and asked if they were for today’s lesson. I had to burst his bubble and tell him that they were for the Pre-Algebra classes. I am now more mindful to try to set up more discovery lessons for all my courses. Today the Algebra students did a gallery walk where each group contributed to solving consecutive integer word problems. I am happy to report that “Jerry” was pleased.

As for Danny, he chose to write his essay last Friday on the Multiplicative Property of Zero. He continues to amaze me. I can’t wait to see what he has to offer next.

I don’t know if this is all real, whether I’m going to wake-up soon and realize that it’s been a dream. Whatever the case may be, I’m going to enjoy the show while it lasts!

And We're Off...

Today was the first full day of classes at the school where I teach. There was so much excitement in the air! Most of the teachers spend the first day going over their syllabus, rules, procedures and other important information. I wait to pass out my syllabus, but quickly talk about supplies and class structure (1.5 periods in lab, 3.5 periods in class, etc.). Since I have freshmen I also give them an opportunity to ask questions about their new school (They usually have a lot). I try to mix it up so that students are not sitting and listening for the whole 90 minute period. I know I would get restless sitting and listening for that long and it isn't fair to expect them to do so.

One of the activities I started with today was a "snowball fight". I have students write three things about themselves on a piece of paper without putting their name on it (I do one too!). Once everyone has their list we each crumble our paper into a ball and spread out around the classroom. Next I set the timer (for about 1 minute) and the students and myself have a paper snowball fight. They are usually pretty reluctant to actually throw paper in the beginning. I tell them it is the only time they will be allowed to throw paper in my class and that it is the only time they can throw anything at me! :) After a little encouragement everyone gets involved and starts having fun. Once the timer goes off everyone finds a snowball (not their own) and walks around the room to figure out who's paper they have. Each student must introduce the class to the person who's paper they picked up. This is a fun way for students to get to know a little bit about each other and a little bit about me.

Each day this week we'll talk about the rules and procedures as they come up in class. This keeps students from being bombarded with nothing but me talking and allows me to do activities to get to know them.

Out of Order

I woke up early Thursday morning at 3 o’clock with my left eye watering profusely. I knew that I hadn’t fallen asleep with my contacts in. Nonetheless, something the size of a sand grain was irritating it. I spent the next 30 minutes trying to flush the foreign object out of my eye but to no avail. By then I was fully awake for the rest of the day with a very, scary-looking red eye.

I spent all day at work reassuring the students that I wasn’t upset and crying. They’re pretty caring kids when they want to be. Even my teenage age son must have felt sorry for me because he volunteered to do all my typing for me.

Anyways, my algebra students spent Wednesday and Thursday trying to get started on Cognitive Tutor for the first time. Technical difficulty prevented them from being able to login. Remember to have alternative plans, esp. when it comes to computers and technology.

By dinnertime that evening my eye had swollen itself shut. As much as I hated to admit it, I had to start preparing for a sub and take Friday off to go see an ophthalmologist before the long Labor Day weekend started. Otherwise I would end up spending my whole weekend either at Urgent Care or the Emergency Room.

I had designated this past Friday as the day that I would try to get my pre-algebra students started on Cognitive Tutor. There is no way that I should expect a substitute teacher to take on this task, particularly considering the trouble I was experiencing the previous two days with the laptops. Again I had to fall back on my alternative plans.

Luckily the doctor’s office took me as an emergency walk-in Friday morning. Who knew that eyes could get an ulcer? Mine has one 0.4 mm long as well as several abrasions on the cornea. A prescription of antibiotic eye drops should do the trick and make everything better. Dr. Perkins forewarned me that the healing was going to be a slow process and not to expect an instantaneous miracle. Within the hour, though, my eye was 75% better and I began to tackle my 100-items to-do list. Boy, have I been paying for it ever since!

The health of my left eye reverted to its painful, swollen condition. I have spent the last 48 hours sleeping. It’s my body’s way of making me stop so that my eye could heal properly. Much to my husband’s chagrin, I plan to return to work tomorrow. Yes, we have school on Labor Day. Preparing for a sub is way too much work. Plus I am so far behind!

Back Into the Swing of Things...

Wow this week flew by! I had four days of professional development at my school . We received a grant that allowed the district to provide additional professional development before starting back with the students. One of the topics that was discussed this week was using data to enhance instruction. It made me think about how important the Teacher's Tool Kit Reports are. The data from those reports can be used to identify skills that your whole class or maybe individual students need more help with. What a great way to identify problem areas so that you can adjust your instruction. While the Tool Kit data is not the only data I use to make decisions, it is probably the one that I look at the most.

It was so refreshing to see all the teachers that I haven't seen all summer long! I was able to get my classroom set up and meet our new principal. All of that preparing has me exhausted and school hasn't even really started yet!

Tuesday is my first day with students. We have a half day and will only meet with our advisory group of students. I'm really looking forward to Wednesday when I'll get to meet all of my new 9th graders.

Whether you're like me and just starting your school year or have been back at it for a few weeks, enjoy the long weekend!

No Naked Numbers

As a math teacher, I’m always harping about labeling numbers with their correct units of measure. Some years I emphasize it more than others, depending on my stamina to stay on top of it, and how well prepared the students come to me. Sometimes completing assignments in of itself is a huge accomplishment; you have to pick your battles.

This past summer I was rejuvenated when I heard Sandy use the phrase “no naked numbers allowed”. What a unique way of approaching units of measure!

As we tackled word problems in my Pre-Algebra classes yesterday, I took the opportunity to discuss how to properly clothe naked numbers. As soon as the young teenagers heard the word naked, I immediately had their attention. I realized I was treading on thin ice. Luckily my students kept our lesson rated G. There were some snickers and a comment about “how gorgeous the numbers look,” but that was the extent of the students’ remarks. What they were privately thinking in their minds, I can only guess. Let’s not go there. The important thing is that students were engaged and attentive. What more could I ask?

Timing is everything

As I mentioned before one of the things I want to work on this year is pacing my day to day lessons. On my lesson plans I always plan 5 - 10 minutes for the warm up problem or activity for the day. However, by the time students get into class, get settled and actually start working I usually end up giving them more like 10 - 15 minutes. The only person I have to blame is myself. I'm guilty of not holding them to the standard that I set. Five minutes a day might not sound like a lot, but that adds up to 25 minutes a week of loss instructional time that could have been used for presentations, discussions, exit slips or any other activity.

This problem does not stop with the warm up. I usually chunk my activities/lessons so that students have to be finished with a certain portion within a given time limit. But I get so wrapped up in working with students that I lose track of time.... resulting in (you guessed it) more lost instructional time.

So what is a teacher to do about this problem?

The solution I'm going to try is to use a timer. It's so simple I don't know why I never thought of it before. There are many different (and free) online timers that can be used such as www.online-stopwatch.com (the one that is used in initial implementation training and inspired me at the Carnegie NMI conference to try this) that are great for displaying if you have a projector and a computer for day to day classroom use. Unfortunately I do not have a way to easily (due to the room configuration) hook my computer to the projector and document camera that I have. So I decided that I could buy a small kitchen timer and put it under the document camera to project it to students. I had looked all over at various stores but could not find one that was inexpensive (the really hard part) and simple enough for what I needed. I finally found one while I was shopping yesterday (I've been looking since the end of July) at ... where else...the dollar store. You cannot imagine how elated I was. It was the perfect size and exactly what I was looking for.

Being that school does not start until September 7, all I need now are some students so I can try it out. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

I'm in LOVE

…with FOLDABLES! Or at least infatuated. Maybe obsessed. I’m not sure if the origami-like aspect of them first caught my attention. Or if it was the visual nature of organizing information. Adding in a splash of bright colors makes them even more appealing. Needless to say, I am addicted to foldables. If foldables ever broke up with me, I’m afraid I would unfortunately become its stalker.

Calvin introduced me to my first foldable two summers ago during CAMT. Remember weaving placemats out of construction paper in Kindergarten? This particular foldable is a close cousin to it. The intriguing part is the “magic” of the other hidden book. I use this foldable to help my students learn their squares and square roots.

During that same conference, Melissa and I stood in line for nearly two hours to be able to get in Dinah Zikes’ presentation. I think we barely made it in when the doors were slammed shut because the maximum occupancy had reached its limit. We were in heaven! The hour zoomed by like a flash of lightning. We left thirsting for more.

As a teacher, have you ever spent endless hours trying to create thoughtful, fill-in-the-blank notes for your students? Then to be heart-broken to find them abandoned on the cold, linoleum floor, or worse, wadded up and pushed to the back of an A-B-C gum infested desk. I have.

[Side note: A-B-C translates to “already been chewed.”]

Those precious notes were your babies. They weren’t to your students. The students had not invested any time in crafting those notes.

When opportunity presents itself, I would introduce a foldable for my students to take notes on. I don’t know why but I was genuinely surprised to discover that many of my students last year kept up with their foldables and referred to them when they got stuck on a math problem and needed a quick refresher. Then it dawned on me. Foldables allow students to take ownership of their learning. Retention increases. Grades improve. Student is happy. Mom is happy. Teacher is elated.

Today in my pre-algebra classes, I took Carnegie's Bridge to Algebra's first lesson on Picture Algebra and divided their problem-solving sequence into four parts.


Then for the algebra classes, the students made a foldable of Algebra Properties. Instead of me defining the properties and going over examples, the students worked out a group of problems for each property and had to generate their own definition. A "discovery" lesson does take longer to implement but is well worth the time.

I dare you to try one with your students. You’ll all be hooked before the hour is over. I was.

Ready or Not

Ready or not, the students are here! Yesterday was the first day of school in Texas, and all things considering, it went extremely well. I have no complaints. For the first time ever, every one of my students on my roster showed up. I am enjoying getting to know each and every one of them. It’s been a very good start.

What a teacher does during the first three days of school sets the classroom atmosphere for the whole year. With high-stakes testing a main focus in education, I feel pressure to start math lessons on the second day of school in addition to assigning a full load of homework problems. Not this year.

A typical first day would consist of introducing myself and giving them a brief history of my teaching career, then going over my syllabus, procedures, and routines. BORING!! Plus at the end of the day my voice would be horse from talking so much. This year I gave a quick welcome and allowed the students to ask questions that they were dying to know about me. Can you believe the only question I received was from one student who wanted to know how old I am? I asked him how old I looked. He got that frightened look on his face, worried that he might give a wrong answer. I saved him and told him that I was plenty old enough to be his mother.

Instead of overloading the students with the same kind of information they were receiving in all their other classes, I wanted the students to participate in a group activity, thus allowing us to discuss group norms and expectations. The pre-algebra classes were given the task to build a one-inch platform made entirely of a letter-sized copier paper and absolutely nothing else. Did I mention that this platform must also support at least one 3-lb textbook? My algebra classes were given Sami’s straw tower activity. Although both courses had many creative structures, I was more impressed with how well the students interacted with one another.

Today’s class time was devoted to group presentations on group norms, using yesterday’s activities as a background for discussion.

I posed the question, “Why would we, in a math class, take the time to highlight group norms and point out qualities of a good presentation?”

A girl in all seriousness asked, “We’re in a math class?”

I am going to take that as a compliment, an indication that my classroom doesn’t feel like a typical math class. Some students wanted reassurance from me that group work was a norm that they can expect on a regular basis. I am more than happy to oblige!

Time off ????

Teachers get the summer off to relax and sit by the pool, right? Anyone who actually believes that must not know any teachers personally! This summer has flown by for me. It started with a week long professional development at the County Regional Center. This was followed by the Carnegie Leaning National Math Institute (where I met Thuc-Khanh!!!), another conference in Seattle, and a 3 day workshop specifically designed for Algebra 1 teachers. Needless to say I've been professionally developed this summer!

The most important thing to do after any PD is to reflect on how you can use what you learned in your own classroom. Reflecting on this summer I know I learned a lot! The most powerful PD I had was the Carnegie Learning National Math Institute. Talk about addressing my needs. I was able to attend sessions that specifically met my needs because they have experience with the same things I struggle with in my own classroom. I was able to attend sessions on pacing, using data, and learned about program updates. Even more fun was meeting people from around the country and sharing ideas about works and what we've tried that didn't work in our classrooms.

There's no possible way I could implement everything I've learned this summer (after all, I'm not super woman!) So following all of that PD I've decided to set a few goals for myself for this school year. The first is to find new ways to group my students and to keep the groups on task. I'm also going to work on pacing... more specifically timing my lessons (more on that to come). Those two things should keep me busy, but I'm also going to try out some new questioning techniques along with way.

What are your goals for this school year?

Expect the Unexpected

On any given campus, in any given year, there is usually some kind of turnover in faculty and staff. This year is no exception for AMCMS except this year has been particular hard on me on a personal level. I will miss the camaraderie of LuAnn and Belinda. We finally got Janet back to the 100 hallway after being deserted in the 600 hallway out in Nowhere Land. I found out a couple of days ago that Janet has accepted the position of Coordinator of Distance Education at a nearby university. To top it all off, Sherry, the English teacher on my team, was informed last week that her husband's company is transferring him to another town, effective immediately. Yikes! By a divine intervention, Sherry yesterday was offered a teaching position in Bandera, and therefore, can move with her husband. As much as I hate to Sherry go, her heart would not have been here if she had to stay.

Yes, students arrive on Monday, in three short days. I spent all afternoon yesterday interviewing potential candidates to fill Sherry's shoes, no small feat in itself. Her unique mixture of quirkiness and eccentricities was the right combination that appealed to middle school kids. I am going to miss Sherry.

There are no guarantees in life. When stuff like this happens to you and catches you off guard, you must be flexible and go with the flow. Math teachers with Type A personality like myself can spend more time upset about how a lesson isn't or didn't go as planned instead of using that energy to adjust and move forward with an alternative plan. Luckily I am slowly evolving and am not as uptight as I was 10 to 15 years ago. I've come to realize that I shouldn't let learning come to a complete halt when life throws me a curve ball. Roger during Carnegie's Math Institute reminded us that you should always have a Plan B, a Plan C, . . . , a Plan X, a Plan, Y and a Plan Z!

I am not going to give you false hopes and try to convince you that your year is going to go 100% smoothly without any bumps or bruises, but I am confident that the journey is definitely worth taking for both you and your students. Bon voyage!

You CAN Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

This past summer I have had many professional development opportunities. All I can say is WOW!! I have learned so much that I'm still trying process all the wonderful information.

The biggest AH-HA moment for me was learning a new way to divide fractions. How many of you out there learned the method Invert and Multiply? I did. It's the only algorithm for dividing fractions. Right? Wrong!

Ever heard of dividing with a common denominator? I was first exposed to this "revolutionary" algorithm at CAMT in San Antonio. As soon as I could get to a computer, I excitedly googled it. Much to my surprise, there were dozens and dozens of websites on this specific topic. My first thoughts were "Am I the last math teacher on earth to hear about this method? Makes me wonder what other fantastic math practices that I don't know about."

Of course, I immediately had to call, email, and text all my teacher friends and tell them about my great discovery. The range of reactions was "Oh...nice. Did you hear about so and so?" to "Cool. I can't wait to show this to my students!"

Dividing fractions using a common denominator makes so much more sense. You actually get to divide. The best part is that the transition from pictorial to abstract is a smooth one.

Here are the steps:
1. Convert all numbers to fractions, if not already.
2. Find a common denominator.
3. Divide the numerators.
4. Divide the denominators, which always should be "1" if you did step #2.
5. Simplify the answer.

I was like a kid in a candy store, giddy with delight! I know. It takes so little to make my day. Bye!